Nothing to be proud of, IMHO. 1000 Russian PoWs and forced laborers killed, 500 German women and children killed, no substantial damage to the armament industry of the Ruhr. The whole story has been hugely inflated by that 1950s propaganda movie and the ever-returning pseudo-heroic stories of the "Sun" and "Daily Mail" (*yawn*). By the way, the movie is AWFUL.

However both films have somewhat warped the perception of Bomber Command's work, because the stroy in both cases is one of elite squadrons using special weapons against pin-point targets with a discernable result.

That's the exact opposite of what actually happened which is night area bombing with each crew acting independently and no immediate concrete result. However we'll probably never get a good film about Bomber Command doing that simply because it's hard to construct a narrative about it.

Well actually that is not entirely true. Strangely enough, those on the other end of those bombing raids usually increased their resolve against their enemies.

Then there was the moral issue of killing so many civilans by the use of area bombing employed by both Harris and LeMay. Even many Allied military leaders questioned the use of such raids. LeMay himself admitted that if the Allies lost the war he probably would be tried as a war criminal.

Harris thought he could end the war by such raids when he began his all out campaign in late 1943. He thought wrong.

Lets not focus on the policy makers. The pride I as a Brit feel is for the brave aircrew who actually flew this mission with such skill and élan.

Each nation on either side during WW2 can lay claim to certain events that fills them with pride and respect for their participants. The Dambusters is one of the many. I could list many more, all of which resulted in innocent and unfortunate deaths.